How more North East companies can become scaleups: Peter Hiscocks talks exports

Peter Hiscocks, Senior Lecturer at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, visited the region recently as part of an autumn conference, organised by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

The ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’ conference saw more than 200 of the region’s business community gather to learn about business growth from a variety of industry-leaders and experts.

Attendees heard from a number of business experts, including a panel of scaleup business owners chaired by Graham Robb, Senior Partner of Recognition PR.

Richard Lane of sales consultancy and training firm durhamlane, Mohammed Bashir of Boro Taxis, and Andrew Tomlinson of online retailer Andrew James shared their experiences of growing their businesses.

Mr Hiscocks told the audience: “For most of us the real opportunities are global, this is where we need to be heading.”

A recent Entrepreneurs’ Forum study indicated showed that the region’s scaleup businesses performed better last year than in the previous and that the majority predict even stronger performance next year.

68% of companies said they expected to increase the number of people they employ and 52% of firms expected to see an increase in export sales in 2016/17, compared to just 3% that expect to see exports fall.

Continuing the topic of business growth, Peter Hiscocks said: “Learn how to be an effective leader, we can all be better at this and focus on building your top team.

“You cannot be everything. There are not many founders that run the business themselves with some employees. All of us need to build a top team that works with us; that are part of the strategic management of the business.

“They must have a cohort vision for where the business is going to go. Get help from successful people, they have experience you need and they help your credibility.”